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Packing Heat Onto College Campuses

Demonstrators protest against concealed carry on campus at the University of Texas at Austin in 2015.Credit Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press

The gun lobby’s relentless drive to arm students across the nation’s college campuses ran into an unexpected hitch in Georgia last week when Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a measure that would have let students carry concealed weapons to class. Mr. Deal scoffed at the rationale of fellow Republicans in the legislature that arming students would increase their safety. “It is highly questionable that such would be the result,” he stressed in his veto message.

At the same time, lawmakers in Tennessee succeeded with a partial advance of the “campus carry” gun craze, approving a measure authorizing professors and other full-time staffers with permits to go about armed on public campuses. Gov. Bill Haslam declined to either sign or veto the measure, thus non-Solomonically allowing it to become law. He contended that while his preference was to leave the issue to local college officials, some of his concerns were addressed in the bill he wouldn’t sign. Considerable opposition was voiced by college professors, students and law enforcement officials closely involved in campus life. Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America denounced the governor’s passive-aggressive enactment, complaining Mr. Haslam “failed to stand up for public safety and veto a dangerous guns on campus bill.”

Despite heavy opposition from college and police officials, campus carry has become a perennial issue in states with pro-gun legislatures, particularly as the election cycle heats up. Ten states now allow guns at colleges, although Arkansas, like Tennessee, limits them so far to professors and staff workers. August 1 should see one of the more sweeping arrivals of arms in academia as the Texas university system, with more than 200,000 students, allows anyone 21 years or older to roam state campuses with concealed weapons, classrooms included.

And in July of next year, all six Kansas state universities and dozens of community colleges and tech schools must allow their students to carry concealed weapons on campus, classrooms included. A poll of 20,000 Kansas college employees found 82 percent said they would feel less safe on an armed campus, according to National Public Radio. Two-thirds said the presence of guns would necessarily hamper their freedom to teach effectively. Critics of the move wonder, what if students get into a gun fight in class? And what happens to open discourse in a place tense with concealed carry?

The legislative majorities pushing this issue as a public safety necessity insist armed students and professors are the best way to defend against armed intruders. But a new study of federal firearms data indicates licensed and armed private citizens wind up harming themselves or others with their guns far more often than shooting attackers. The study by the Violence Policy Center, a gun safety advocacy group, found that over a three-year period ending in 2014, less than one percent of victims of attempted or completed crimes of violence used their firearms to try to stop crimes. The notion of quick-draw self defense remains a macho fantasy for gun buyers.